California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

RICHARD STEPHENS. While many large individual fortunes have been brought out to California 
for investment and development of the varied resources of the state, it is noteworthy that many 
of the most substantial men of Ventura County have made their start in this state just about 
even with the world, and by hard work and taking advantage of opportunities have gained 
prominence and prosperity.
An instance is the case of Richard Stephens. A young man of about twenty or twenty-one, when 
he came to Hollywood, California, he spent a year on a ranch, and then became clerk in the 
general merchandise store of J. Duncan at Fillmore, California. A year later he acquired an 
interest in the business, and the firm name was changed to Duncan and Stephens. About a year 
and a half later Mr. Duncan died, and the entire business was acquired by Mr. Stephens. At that 
time the store was located on the southeast corner of Central and Main streets. After changing 
the name to "Richard Stephens, General Merchandise," he bought a block of land 100 by 125 
feet on the southwest corner of Central and Main streets, and there erected a commodious 
building, in which he installed his stock of merchandise, and for about fifteen years continued 
meeting the demands of the large and increasing trade. He finally sold his store to the firm of 
Cornelius & Hawthorne, the latter of whom still conducts it.
From 1897 until March, 1915, Mr. Stephens served as postmaster of Fillmore, and although a 
republican received his appointment by Cleveland, and retired during the administration of 
Wilson. In recent years he has been one of the leading business factors in the town. In 1900 he 
established the Fillmore Warehouse Company, for the storing of the products of the 
community, and sold that out in 1911. He was one of the organizers and was a director of the 
Fillmore State Bank until 1913, and after selling his interests in that institution he and others 
organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Santa Paula and Fillmore. He is still a director in 
that bank. Mr. Stephens has one of the most attractive country homes in the vicinity of Fillmore. 
In 1904 he bought eleven and a half acres near Fillmore which he has developed into one of the 
finest lemon and orange groves in the county. In 1913 he bought twenty-two acres additional, 
planting it to lemons and oranges, and it promises to become one of the show orchards in the 
district.
Richard Stephens was born in Glasgow, Scotland, August 31, 1870, a son of John G. and Mary C. 
Stephens. He attended the public schools of his native city up to the age of fourteen, and then 
learned business as clerk in the offices of the Anchor Line Steamship Company at Dundee, 
Scotland, where he remained four and a half years. The company then transferred him to 
Leghorn, Italy, and he remained there a year and a half as assistant manager. It was on 
resigning this position that he came to America and began his career in California.
Mr. Stephens is a Scottish Rite Mason, also a member in the York Rite bodies, and of the Mystic 
Shrine. At San Diego, California, December 25, 1903, he married Miss Stella F. Warburton, a 
native of Nevada and a daughter of Thomas Warburton, one of the pioneers of California and 
Nevada, coming around Cape Horn in 1850. Mr. Warburton early turned his attention to affairs 
in Nevada, first engaging in mining and later in the mercantile business. He was an influential 
man in the early days of Nevada and occupied several positions of political trust and 
importance. In about 1898 he retired and made his home in San Diego, where he now resides.